1. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the "Hiram Plan" to evacuate the city and to return Belfast to 'normality' as quickly as possible. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. In addition, there simply was not enough space for everyone who needed shelter in one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. 14 Breathtaking Facts about Belfast - Fact City From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. So had Clydeside until recently. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. The bombs caused death and destruction across the city, affecting those of all religions and political backgrounds. At 10:40 on the evening of Easter Tuesday 1941 air raid sirens sounded across Belfast, sending people across the city scrambling for safety - in one of the 200 public shelters in the city or the thousands of shelters or other "safe" spaces in private homes. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. Nearby residential areas in east Belfast were also hit when "203 metric tonnes of high explosive bombs, 80 land mines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs"[16] were dropped. 2. The couple, who ran a children's home, stayed with Anna's parents, William and Harriette Denby, and her sisters, Dot and Isa, at Evelyn Gardens, off the Cavehill Road, in the north of the city. Subs offer. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". He was succeeded by J. M. Andrews, then 69 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. The Blitz: When Was It, Why Did It Begin And How Did It End Similar initiatives bearing the same name were ordered in the past decade by former mayors Libby . There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. So had Clydeside until recently. Belfast was largely unprepared for an attack of such a scale as 200 German bombers shelled the city on 15 April 1941. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. On August 2, Luftwaffe commander Hermann Gring issued his Eagle Day directive, laying down a plan of attack in which a few massive blows from the air were to destroy British air power and so open the way for the invasion. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the.